Townscape criticism - ultimate relaxation game

Townscaper is an indie city builder computer game. It was launched for PC as well as Mac on the Vapor system in June 2020 by developer Oskar Stålberg. A port to the Nintendo Change was released in August 2021, alongside which the Heavy steam variation left very early accessibility. It includes low poly graphics as well as a straightforward, minimalistic interface.

The game is likewise scheduled to be released on mobile systems in summer 2021.

Philosophical question: Is it better for a game to do something really good, or many things with a moderate degree of success? Do you prefer to eat in a buffet (pre-covid-19), where the chicken is delicious but the potato salad has the taste of old socks, or in a chic restaurant where they only serve a concentrated perfection square who melts in the mouth? Townscaper has a set of limited features, but you will not find a more relaxing way to spend a few minutes.

I guess the easiest way to describe townscaper is that it is a city builder, but that involves a complexity and a range of options that simply do not part of the game. You start with a Extent of calm and empty water, go down one or two path tiles, then make a choice. Add tiles and develop the path, or click on a tile and add a dwelling? Although you can play infinity with the colors or the vertical and horizontal geometry of your small floating city by adding several floors to houses, or small parcels of garden or cuts, there is no element of architectural design directly under your control. There are signs of life - Gulls getting happily pursuant to the top of the roofs and flowers in flowers - but you will not see small busy residents hang on the streets.

What you have is a certain artistic control over the appearance of the scene. You can adjust the corner of the sun, illuminate your buildings with a beautiful morning light, or enlighten the scene by dozens of windows in an otherwise dark world. You can also pivot the camera freely in the city. The genius of Townscaper is that, provided that all that is vaguely looks like a European village of the 18th century, it is literally impossible to create something that is not beautiful. It's a bit like improvising on a pentatonic range, where nothing sounds discordant.

It is difficult to exaggerate the cold atmosphere of Townscaper. The placement or removal of a tile is instantaneous and accompanied by a sweet plop percussion sound that rises and descends in height, creating a little musical melody as you build. Whether you create a massive village of winding streets and multi-storey buildings or a simple floating hamlet, it will be beautiful. Townscaper music is, unsurprisingly, so soft and soothing that the gameplay, ambient tracks that arise from silence and relieve it at regular intervals.

The user interface is appropriate, but inside the parameters is the ability to save the creations in the clipboard or as an .OBJ file to edit them in a 3D application. You can also disable all colors and details of the buildings, making them in the form of neutral shapes. The game works well with the keyboard and the mouse or the controller. After all, there is not much to control.

It's hard to criticize a game - created by one person, by the way - who fulfills his mission, but if I had to make a wish list, that would start with the addition of some sets of different tiles, allowing Being the transposition of the decorating medieval English landscape or an American suburb of the 1950s. Mechanics does not need to change, but it would be nice to have a choice of architectural styles.

Townscaper exists in this special kind of relaxing atmosphere that includes games like digital coloring books and virtual bubble paper, but it also slowly pushes cities manufacturers, but without any complications or stress. You will feel like a traveler in creative and relaxed time, creating a small peaceful and perfect city in the middle of a perfectly calm sea. Townscaper does not try to do a lot of things, instead, it does one thing very, very good.